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Zhou Yu is a Chinese name; the family name is Zhou.


Zhou Yu is a unique legendary Strategist hero in Total War: Three Kingdoms. He is a member of Xue Li in 194. He later joins Sun Ce in 200.


Description[]

Meet Zhou Yu, Wu's finest strategist, loyal officer of the Sun family, and close friend to both Sun Ce and Sun Quan. Calm and intelligent, Zhou Yu is a wise military tactician who sees through most of his enemies' ploys.


General Information[]

Attributes[]

Main Article: Attributes (Total War: Three Kingdoms)

TW3K ICO expertise
Expertise
TW3K ICO resolve
Resolve
TW3K ICO cunning
Cunning
TW3K ICO instinct
Instinct
TW3K ICO authority
Authority
83 45 124 44 49
-15% construction cost (administered commandery)
+25 melee evasion
+9% general's health
+1k population growth (administered commandery)
+55% ammunition (own retinue)
+13 military supplies (own army)
+5% melee damage
-1% recruitment cost (this army)
+2 satisfaction (faction-wide, if leader, heir or prime minister)
+2 unit morale (own retinue)


Background[]

Main Article: Background (Total War: Three Kingdoms)

Melodic Strategist

  • +30 expertise
  • +20 cunning
  • +10 authority
  • +1 resilience
  • -10% retinue upkeep (faction-wide, if leader, heir or prime minister)
  • +4 morale when defending (faction-wide, if leader, heir or prime minister)
  • Admires Intelligence, Commends Flexibility


Traits[]

Main Article: Traits (Total War: Three Kingdoms)


Skills[]

Main Article: Skill (Total War: Three Kingdoms)


Abilities[]

Main Article: Ability (Total War: Three Kingdoms)

  • Unbreakable
    • Does not suffer any morale loss and will never rout.
  • Inspiring Surge (Passive Buff)
    • Can target if:
      • General
    • -2s decreased cooldown of abilities
    • Range: 50m
    • Duration: Infinite


Ancillaries[]

Main Article: Ancillary (Total War: Three Kingdoms)

  • Noble's Sword
    • Base Melee Damage: 643
    • Armour-Piercing Melee Damage: 161
    • Melee Attack Rate: 30
    • +9 authority
    • +5 satisfaction
  • Zhou Yu's Armour
  • Black Horse


Guanxi[]

Main Article: Guanxi


Biography[]

Born in Lujiang commandery, Zhou Yu befriended Sun Ce while he and the rest of the Sun family lived there in the early 190s while Sun Jian was on his military campaigns. Henceforth, he became a close friend of the Sun family. He later served briefly under his uncle, Zhou Shang, who was appointed administrator of Danyang by Yuan Shu, before finally joining Sun Ce once more. The two's old friendship was rekindled, and Zhou Yu became a close advisor and confidant to Sun Ce during his military campaigns.

As Sun Ce swept through much of southern China in a wave of conquests, he tasked Zhou Yu with holding on to Danyang for him thanks to his uncle's ties in the area. However, Zhou Shang's position as administrator was revoked by Yuan Shu and he was recalled, with Zhou Yu accompanying him, only for him to defect back to Sun Ce once more when Yuan Shu declared himself emperor in 198. He briefly served as a defender of the Yangtze River, preventing a river crossing from Yuan Shu's forces before the "emperor" died a year later. In the same year, Zhou Yu was named administrator of Jiangxia and later Yuzhang by Sun Ce, finally establishing some stability for the young strategist.

That stability was uprooted when Sun Ce died in 200 AD, being succeeded by Sun Quan. While some more "ambitious" souls pointed out that Zhou Yu could have easily couped Sun Quan, he was loyal enough to the Sun clan to show his public support to Sun Quan. This move was especially appreciated by the late Sun Jian's wife, Lady Wu, who urged Sun Quan to take on Zhou Yu as his surrogate brother. Around this time, with many calling for Sun Quan to surrender to Cao Cao, who was conquering many parts of China and seemed virtually undefeatable at this point, Zhou Yu was one of the few who argued against it, convincing Sun Quan to remain independent.

Zhou Yu saw his first real field command in 206 AD, leading a two-year campaign that saw him defeat and kill Huang Zu, a minor warlord under Liu Biao. Later that year, Liu Biao died of old age, and his son Liu Cong immediately surrendered all of his father's territory, which included Jing Province and more lands outside it, to Cao Cao. What followed was a scramble between Liu Qi, Biao's unfavoured son, and Liu Bei to secure as much of Jing as possible, laying the groundwork for what would eventually become the Kingdom of Shu-Han. Liu Bei demanded the submission of Sun Quan shortly after his rise in importance, yet it was Zhou Yu who convinced Liu Bei to enter an alliance against Cao Cao with Sun Quan instead. This would be a critical event in Chinese history, as this alliance preluded the events leading up to the Battle of Red Cliffs, which saw Cao Cao soundly defeated in a catastrophic ambush by both the forces of Liu Bei and Sun Quan.

The alliance gained momentum for some time after the Battle of Red Cliffs, with Zhou Yu fighting against Cao Ren in Nan commandery, driving back Ren despite being injured in the process. This marked the height of Zhou Yu's importance, as he was appointed Lieutenant General and Administrator of Nan in 209 AD, only to fall ill and die at a young age in 210 AD. Zhou Yu's death immediately weakened Sun Quan's position in central China. His successor, Lu Su, lacked the prestige that came with the Zhou Yu name and eventually "leased" (read: abandoned) Nan commandery and other lands to Liu Bei. If it's any solace, Zhou Yu did not live to see his alliance with Liu Bei shatter into a decades-long three-way civil war between the Three Kingdoms of Wu, Shu-Han, and Wei. Zhou Yu's offspring married into the Sun family frequently and retained some relevance in Wu all the way until the fall of Wu in 280 AD to the Jin Dynasty.


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